Hebrew word · H659
אֶ֫פַע
me'afa'
worthless
Found only here. It is parallel to ʾayin, "nothing", so it must mean something like "nothing, nought, worthlessness". BDB and HALOT both suspect a slip for ʾepes, "end, zero, nothing". In Hebrew script ס (s) and ע (ʿ) are different letters, but they can be confused in some older script forms.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
worthless, of nought
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Isaiah 41:24
- Range of meaning
Found only here. It is parallel to ʾayin, "nothing", so it must mean something like "nothing, nought, worthlessness". BDB and HALOT both suspect a slip for ʾepes, "end, zero, nothing". In Hebrew script ס (s) and ע (ʿ) are different letters, but they can be confused in some older script forms.
- Against the English
KJV and YLT: "of nought". WEB: "nothing". BSB: "of no value". ESV: "less than nothing" (it reads the min as comparing). NIV: "utterly worthless". The differences are about strength of tone, not real meaning.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Its closest relative, ʾepes, appears in the same chapter (41:12, "as nothing at all") and in 40:17 (mēʾepes, the same min construction). A minority link ʾepaʿ with ʾepʿeh, "viper" (Isa 30:6; 59:5), giving "your work is from a viper". That clashes with the clear parallel and has little support. The Septuagint's "from the earth" suggests its translators were also unsure of the word.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 41:24 מֵאָ֑פַע [is] from something worthless
Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
Here: It pairs with "of nothing" in the first half of the line: "your work is of nought". The word occurs only here. Most lexicons treat it as a scribal variant of ʾepes, "nothing, zero". Either way the sense, "nothing at all", is clear from the parallel.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.